


You're my best friend and I... love you?

by Side_effect_of_the_meds



Series: Fem!Andreil [10]
Category: All For The Game
Genre: F/F, MY BABIES, and i adore Kevin, im in love with erin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22552033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Side_effect_of_the_meds/pseuds/Side_effect_of_the_meds
Summary: Do you know what I need more of? Ania’s and Kevin’s friendship. Like I would die for them
Relationships: Kevin Day & Andrew Minyard, Kevin Day & Neil Josten, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: Fem!Andreil [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1586845
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	You're my best friend and I... love you?

Ania hadn’t thought that Aaron could get any gloomier. 

“Never say never,” Kevin grumbled as they watched his sullen form slink around the dorm. From the kitchen, they could hear the crash and clatter of pots and pans. Nicky had grown uncharacteristically quiet in the days since Erin’s departure for Easthaven but the slamming of drawers and cabinet doors made up for his silence. 

“Are they going to be okay?” Ania asked in french. 

“They can still play,” Kevin replied. Aaron and Nicky weren’t like them. The upperclassmen might have dubbed the cousins ‘the monsters’ but the three of them had proved to be anything but. 

Monsters were heartless. Nicky had a heart of gold. 

Monsters were selfish. Everything Aaron did, he did for his sister. 

Monsters were soulless. Just because Erin didn’t love the way everyone else did, didn’t mean she didn’t love at all. 

Monsters did what they did, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. By that logic, Kevin and Ania weren’t monsters either. They were beasts; everything they did, they did to survive. They’d do what they did until their bones broke and their hearts stopped. That wasn’t true. Kevin had broken his arm and here he was, playing with everything he had. Ania’s heart had stopped before and yet here she was, running from her past as fast as she could. So long as there was even an ounce of strength left in their bodies, Kevin would play and Ania would run. It was all they knew how to do. 

She opened her mouth to tell him as much but stopped short at the look on his face. His gaze was focused on a point in the distance as he crushed the stuffed fox plush closer to his chest. It had been a present from Erin, won at a carnival that summer. 

“Look, it’s you,” Erin had said, presenting her prize to Kevin 

“That’s a fox,” he replied, his brow furrowed. 

“I’m getting tired of you acting like you’re so much better than us. You play for Palmetto now, Day. That makes you a fox.” She paused then, inspecting the toy. “Maybe he just doesn’t resemble you well enough.” Wrenching the toy’s front left leg off, she held the altered plush up for him to inspect. “Better?” she asked. The manic smile accompanying her words made Ania’s blood run cold. Glancing at Kevin, she saw his frightened gaze trained on the severed limb in Erin’s hand. He nodded dumbly and accepted the stuffed fox without another word. 

A month ago, the plush had disappeared. Ania had found Erin in the girls’ locker room with needle and thread, mending the toy. Their eyes met and Ania saw the challenge in Erin’s gaze. 

“You should use thicker thread,” Ania offered. 

“You’ll see the tear,” Erin replied. 

“And Kevin will always see his scar.” Erin considered that for a minute before pulling out the neat row of stitches she’d just placed. With a thick, white thread, she resewed the detached arm. Ania watched as Kevin cradled the toy when Erin handed it back to him. 

“Thank you,” he’d whispered. Erin had already started for the door but Ania knew she’d heard when she caught a glimpse of way Erin’s lips tugged upwards into a sad smile. 

“Hey,” Ania said softly, snapping Kevin out of his daze. “She’ll be back on the court in no time. 

“She isn’t like us,” Kevin countered. “There’s more to her than Exy.” And then, in a voice so soft that Ania thought she’d imagined it, he added, “She’s more than just an investment. She’s my friend.” 

Kevin’s words knocked the breath from Ania’s lungs. Immediately, she felt infinitely more alone. After only a year and a half at the Foxhole Court, Kevin was already more human than she was. To be fair, the foxes worked their magic pretty quickly. In the seven months Ania had been here, she’d found her own glacial heart starting to thaw. 

The upperclassmen were congenial and kind, giving without ever expecting anything in return. They all flocked around Ania, offering her comfort and advice the way she imagined normal parents would.

The cousins were wild and reckless, their antics bringing quiet smiles to Ania’s face. There was Kevin and Coach, both strict and hard to please but supportive and fiercely protective of her no matter what she did. 

And then there was Erin. Drugged to the heavens, her snark matched Ania’s toxic tongue to a t. Sober, her cold and callous facade didn’t last long. Her curiosity almost always won out, evident in the mischievous glittering of her eyes. The pair of them danced on knife’s edge trading secrets as they shared cigarettes. 

And then there was that. A certain sense of… something pervaded many of their exchanges. From the barely there brush of Erin’s shoulder against hers to the conspiratorial whispers they shared while they taunted one another, there was something about it all that Ania didn’t quite understand. She’d long since given up trying to interpret what any of it meant. Even so, that didn’t stop the butterflies from flaring to life in her stomach everytime Erin so much as glanced at her nor Ania’s pulse from racing whenever she came close. More than likely, it was the adrenaline flooding her system to fuel her fight or flight response. 

Regardless, Kevin had grown a heart and Ania was growing soft. She’d have to leave soon. But not before Erin came home. 

Swallowing, Ania offered Kevin one of the few truths that truly hurt her to admit. “She’s my best friend, Kevin. You and Erin are all I have left.” Kevin turned an incredulous look on her. 

“But your mom-” 

“Mom told me that the only way I’d ever set foot on a court again was over her dead body.” Kevin frowned as he searched for the answer to his unfinished question. As the weight of her implication hit him, his face crumpled. 

“Ania,” he choked. A thin sheen of tears coated his emerald eyes. Ania shrugged as she turned her attention to the blank t.v. screen. Suddenly, she felt a pair of arms wrap around. Too surprised to move, Ania let Kevin draw her into his lap. “I’m sorry,” he said. 

“It’s not your fault,” she managed. 

“I know. I’m just sorry that I’m fifty percent of your assets.” At that, Ania laughed. She twisted in time to see Kevin’s watery smile. 

Thanksgiving break came and went. Aaron and Nicky spent it at Abby’s. Kevin and Ania spent it at the court. They ran drills from sunrise to sunset. More than once, Ania caught herself searching the stadium seats for Erin. Kevin caught on quickly and picked up the pace, keeping her distracted. It was little after midnight when Ania collapsed from exhaustion. Laying on the court floor, she realized that her legs were going numb. It didn’t matter. She had to get up. She had to keep going. 

“Junkie.” Erin’s voice echoed through Ania’s head. Ania closed her eyes and saw the mirthful, dopey smile that always accompanied the word. 

“Ania,” Kevin called. She pried her eyes open to watch him jog across the court towards her. Hauling herself up, she leaned heavily against her racquet. “Let’s call it a day.” 

“No. I’m fine.” No sooner had the words left her mouth when she pitched forward. She must have looked unsteady because Kevin was ready to catch her. Scooping her up with ease, he carried her to the court door. With some difficulty, he opened it. Setting her down on the bench, he propped her up against the wall. He began unstrapping her gear. “I can do it myself,” she said, making no move to stop him. 

“You can shower by yourself,” he said as though it were some consolation. Ania glared at him and he smiled. It was a wide, toothy grin that Ania hadn’t seen since she was very small. For the first time in eight years, she saw the Kevin she’d chased across the Evermore courts. Smiling at her, Ania remembered how much she’d loved Kevin, the only person in her life who’d made her feel normal. 

Nathan hadn’t had time to sit around and teach Ania anything that wasn’t directly involved with the family business. Her mother had been too wrapped up in her own misery to spare her daughter any attention. It had been Kevin that had taught Ania how to tie her shoes and spell her name. On the days that she visited Evermore, he’d been the one to shake her awake in the morning and tuck her in at night. He’d even managed to convince Tetsuji to let him go to Baltimore so he could hold her hand as he walked her to her first day of preschool. Kevin might not have been related to her by blood but he’d always been the closest thing Ania had ever had to family. 

After resting awhile on the bench, Ania found the strength to stand and make her way to the locker rooms. She showered quickly but thoroughly before tossing her gear into the laundry cart. Kevin came out not long after, clutching a clean towel. 

“You’ll catch a cold,” he said, motioning to her wet hair. Ania sat quietly as he dried her hair for her. Once he’d finished, he chucked it into the laundry bin beside the gear. Sitting down beside her, he wrapped his arms around her. Ania leaned into him instinctively. “One down, six to go,” he said. Ania deflated. Six weeks, six whole weeks, until Erin came home. 

“Kevin?” He hummed in response. “Will you sing for me?” She felt him work his jaw as he searched for a response. “You don’t have to.”

She felt his chest swell as he took a deep breath. Kevin’s voice was a soft tenor, untrained but enough to soothe Ania. Where Kevin had been raised on Exy, Erin had been raised on music. She’d sang from a young age as a coping mechanism for the horrors she faced in her negligent foster homes. At twelve, her foster mother, Cass, had heard Erin singing and sent her to class. Erin spoke about Cass in the most wistful tone, piquing Ania’s curiosity. In exchange for a few inconsequential secrets, Erin admitted that Cass had offered to adopt her. She’d turned Cass down in favor of moving in with Aaron. Ania had thought the whole thing strange but she hadn’t pushed. Knowing now that Cass was Drake’s mother, the pieces slotted into place. Of course, Erin had chosen to take her chances with Tilda rather than remain with the Spears. 

In the years since her departure from the Spear home, Erin had taken up smoking. The bad habit gave her voice a gravely texture that Ania adored far more than she cared to admit. Often, she found herself pressing her ear up against the dorm wall to catch the faint strains of Erin singing to herself. 

It wasn’t as though Erin didn’t sing in front of the others. In fact, she sang as she dressed at her locker beside Ania and in the car and on the bus and as they walked to the corner store. Drugged to the heavens, Erin sang seemingly lighthearted songs that grew dark as you registered the lyrics. However, returning from her early morning runs during their trips to Columbia, Ania always ran into a half-asleep Erin in the kitchen as she prepared breakfast. 

Sober but sleepy, Erin’s beautiful voice drifted through the kitchen, singing mournfully of partners past. Recently, Erin had begun to allow Ania to sit on the kitchen island while she worked. She sang wistfully of beautiful girls and eloping lovers as she swayed before the stove.

The morning before Erin left for Easthaven had gone similarly. Ania had been standing beside her, scrambling eggs to go with the bacon. Lighting a cigarette with the fire from the stove, Erin had turned to offer one to Ania as well. Ania had accepted before realizing that she had no light. Just as she was about to light it the way Erin had, Erin closed the space between the two of them. Cupping Ania’s face in one hand, she pressed the cherry of her cigarette to the unlit one between Ania’s lips with her eyes closed. 

As Erin drew away, she turned, returning to singing without missing a beat. As a kid, the children in Ania’s school had said that if one person put their mouth on something and then another person pressed their own lips to the same spot, they’d claim that it was an indirect kiss. If those were indirect kisses, then what was that? She didn’t know. 

It doesn’t matter, she told herself. She’d spent too much time here at Palmetto. She didn’t have time to figure out whatever game Erin was playing now. Six weeks until Erin would come home. Six weeks until it was time for Ania to leave. It would be lonely out on the run after living with so many people for so long. It would be cold too. With her face pressed up to Kevin’s chest, rumbling as he sang, and his warm arms wrapped around her, Ania felt her eyes closing. I’ve got six weeks to enjoy all of this. Six weeks and I’m gone, she promised herself before drifting off to sleep in Kevin’s arms. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed that! It was actually a lot of fun to write, especially since after taking a break from it all. Follow me on Tumblr @side-effect-of-the-meds for more of my tomfoolery. You can even shoot me an ask or two. Dunno when I'll get to em but I'll definitely try


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